Agila II.

Agila II. (Also Achila or Akhila; † around 714) was king of the Visigoths from 711 to around 714 . He ruled in the final phase of the Visigoth Empire and ruled only part of the realm.

government

Very little is known about Agila. His existence and rule is only attested by coin finds and a manuscript on the Visigothic king list. The king's list indicates his reign as three years. Since this brief reign falls during the time of the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula by the Muslims, the lack of sources is not surprising. The coins come from Girona , Tarragona , Saragossa and Narbonne . It can therefore be assumed that at least parts of the Tarraconensis region (north and east of the peninsula) and the part of the Empire of Septimania (in the south-west of France) were under Agila's control, while the advance of the Muslims was already taking place in the south. In July 711 the Muslims had won the decisive battle on the Río Guadalete , in which the Visigoth king Roderich fell. Whether Agila was killed fighting the Muslims is unknown; presumably the campaign of the Arab general Musa ibn Nusayr to Saragossa in 714 was directed against him. Agila's successor was Ardo .

After Roderich's death, his followers brought the body to Viseu in northern Portugal, where it was buried. The grave inscription read: "Here rests Roderich, the last king of the Goths". The king lists Roderich headed do not name Agila and Ardo, and Roderich skipped the list that Agila mentioned. From this it emerges that the followers of Roderich did not consider Agila to be the rightful king and those of Agilas disputed the legitimacy of Roderich.

Agila as the alleged anti-king

Some historians have suggested that Agila was an anti-king raised around the same time as Roderich. This view was refuted by Claudio Sánchez-Albornoz, who showed that Agila was only raised after Roderich's death. Roderich was shortly before the end of his reign in the north on a campaign against the Basques. From this it can be seen that he also ruled the north of the empire. Had there been an anti-king in the north, Roderich would have had to fight it and would not have been able to devote himself to the secondary goal of subjugating the Basques.

As evidence of a division of the empire by an opposing kingdom of Agilas, it is stated that no coins from Roderich have been found in the dominion of Agilas. Only twelve coins from Roderich have survived, all of which were minted in Toledo and "Egitania" (in Portugal). This small number of chance finds does not allow any far-reaching conclusions; it can be explained by the very short reign of Roderich. Not even from the otherwise very active mints of Mérida and Córdoba , two cities that were undoubtedly ruled by him during Roderich's reign, have coins from him survived. It is undisputed that Agila never ruled more than part of the empire and therefore its coins were only used there.

Agila as the alleged son of Witiza

When Roderich was elected as king in 710, the sons of his predecessor Witiza were passed over. Therefore, some historians have suggested that Agila was one of these sons and was made king by the party of the Witizas family. However, this presumption has been refuted.

Information about a "Treaty of Damascus", in which Agila (as the son of Witizas) declared his abdication to the caliph and renounced all rights of rule, belong to the realm of the imagination for lack of evidence.

literature

• Dietrich Claude : Investigations into the fall of the Visigoth Empire (711-725). In: Historical yearbook. Vol. 108, 1988, pp. 329-358
• Miquel Barceló: El rei Akhila i els fills de Wititza. Encara un altra recerca. In: Miscellanea Barcinonensia. Vol. 49, 1978, pp. 59-77

Remarks

1. ↑ Laterculus regum Visigothorum, Continuatio codicis C Parisini 4667: Achila reg <navit> ann <is> III., Quoted from: Theodor Mommsen (ed.): Auctores antiquissimi 13: Chronica minora saec. IV. V. VI. VII. (III). Berlin 1898, p. 469 ( Monumenta Germaniae Historica , digitized version )
2. ↑ George C. Miles: The Coinage of the Visigoths of Spain. Leovigild to Achila II. New York 1952, pp. 444-446; Pedro de Palol: Las excavaciones del conjunto de "El Bovalar", Seros (Segria, Lérida) y el reino de Akhila , in: Los Visigodos. Historia y civilisación. Murcia 1986, pp. 513-525.
3. ↑ The Chronicle of Alfonso III. , ed. by Jan Prelog. Frankfurt 1980, p. 16f .; on the credibility of the source Claudio Sánchez-Albornoz: Orígenes de la nación española. Vol. 1, Oviedo 1972, pp. 330-333.
4. ↑ Sánchez-Albornoz p. 224f.
5. ^ The coins are listed in Miles p. 442f.
6. ↑ Claude p. 355 and note 107.
7. ^ Miquel Barceló: El rei Akhila i els fills de Wititza. Encara un altra recerca , in: Miscellanea Barcinonensia. Vol. 49, 1978, pp. 62-66; Claude pp. 340-342.
8. ↑ Claude p. 357 note 115; see. P. 344f. Note 63 (with a compilation of older literature).

predecessor	Office	successor
Roderich	King of the Visigoths 711–714	Ardo